Illuminate deploys full Elation Rig for 'The Thorn'
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Sacramento, US-based Illuminate Production Services has supported the five-week, five-state tour Passion Play The Thorn with a full Elation lighting and LED video package. Taking place throughout March and witnessed by nearly 75,000 people, The Thorn fuses Cirque du Soleil-style aerials with martial arts and state-of-art entertainment in its modern take on the traditional Easter service.
The production uses a virtual set, and in previous years had relied on triple-wide HD projection on a large white backdrop screen. This year’s production used a 35K lumen projector in the centre, flanked on each side of the stage with two offset columns of Elation EVLED 20IP LED panels. The panels ran a variety of scenic graphics intended to give a ‘transitional layered look to the backdrop’.
‘The EVLED panels were extremely reliable,’ stated Rick Franke of Illuminate Production Services and production manager for the show. ‘We had spares on the tour but didn’t need to use them. Some of the panels took some extra abuse due to props and sets being moved about and they still worked flawlessly every night.’
A large Elation lighting rig was also deployed to ‘flood the stage in colour and break-up textures, as well as provide striking mid-air beam looks’ using spot, beam and profile fixtures.
Occupying the rig at down-, mid- and upstage locations were 12 Platinum Spot 15R Pro’s, 10 Platinum Spot 5R Pro’s and 20 Platinum Beam 5R Extremes, while a pair of Platinum 35R Profiles with internal framing were used as primary key lighting fixtures. Additional fixtures on the rig included 12 Rayzor Q12 wash luminaires, six Platinum Wash ZFX Pro’s and RGBA Opti QA Par lights.
Providing additional lighting effects were the manufacturer’s SixBar 1000 colour-changing LED battens and SixPar 200 LED multi-chip Par colour changers. Eight Design Wash LED Strip RGBAW fixtures were used for uplighting of scenic elements with other Design series fixtures providing additional colour and beam looks. Cuepix Panels served as crowd blinders and a pair of Elation’s Sniper 2R multi-effect lights were used during battle scenes.
‘All of the fixtures performed great and held up really well,’ Mr Franke concluded following the tour. ‘As with any tour there are bugs but Elation gave excellent support and occasionally contacted us to see if we needed anything. That is unprecedented service. It’s nice to know that someone has your back and is thinking about you when you’re on the road.’